What exactly is a bistro? I've been seeing that word everywhere recently. There's BluWater Bistro and Stumbling Goat Bistro. P. F. Chang, the upscale Chinese chain, calls itself a bistro. Frito-Lay has the Bistro Gourmet potato chip, and Dansk has a Bistro line of glassware. What makes a bistro different from a cafe, or, say, a brasserie?
I felt compelled to figure out the meaning of the word before venturing out to the Station Bistro in Ballard, so that I might better understand what I was getting myself into. According to The Oxford Companion to Food, a bistro is "an establishment where one can have something to eat, as well as drinks." Helpful. Webster's tells me that bistro has an adjectival formâbistroic (pronounced rather like heroic). I will use that word in a sentence by the end of this review.
Finally, I called up a French friend who explained to me that a bistro is a moderately priced, unpretentious neighborhood restaurant. The emphasis is on neighborhood, she saidâyou should feel like you're eating at home. Quick service, large portions, relaxed atmosphere, and good booze are all part of the equation. The menu should be small and rarely changing, the food preparation should be simple, and the prices should be cheap.
With all this in mind I walked into the refurbished service station on the corner of Leary and 17th Avenues Northwest that is the Station Bistro. The small space is quirkily decorated with old muffler pipes and vintage chandeliers; recycled chemistry-lab tables make up the bar and old chalkboards have been turned into tables. On this sunny afternoon, the large glass garage doors that make up one entire wall were rolled upâI've not found many places to eat and drink outside in Seattle, so it was a treat to feel the late afternoon sun on my face as I sat down and ordered a glass of wine. That said, since we had parked our car in the small lot attached to the restaurant, we were literally eating six feet away from our car. It felt a little like a tailgate party.
Living up to its bistro name, the menu at the Station is indeed simple and relatively inexpensive. Nearly everything is $9 and many items have been on the menu since the restaurant opened seven months ago. There are perhaps a half-dozen small-plate options and twice as many wine selections. I was excited to see a Dolcetto ($8) among those and was not disappointed when the wine came in a simple water glass.
The Caesar salad ($9) featured full, crispy romaine leaves, but the dressing was somewhat watery and the liberally applied Parmesan crumbles seemed as though they could have been shaken out of a green can. The selection on the cheese plate ($9) was fantastic, but the five small slices were served with an airy, dry baguette that did them no favors. The roasted-vegetable risotto ($9) came suspiciously quickly, but turned out to be quite lovely. Like all risotto, it needed to be eaten fast before congealing into a gelatinous, gooey rice blob.
This was difficult to do, however, because all of our dishes were served simultaneously. The server explained that he simply brought out the food as the chef finished it, but seeing as we were one of only two tables in the place, I think the chef could have taken a chill lozenge. As a consequence, the steak dumplings ($9) were a little cold when we got to them, and perhaps not as appealing as they might have been when hot. Still, the sticky white dough surrounding chewy rare-ish steak bits did not sit well with either of us. The best thing about the dish was the Sriracha hot sauce drizzled on top.
None of these plates were what I would call large, so while $9 was a good deal for the risotto, it seems a bit much for the assorted nuts and olives plate. But ultimately, the Station's moderate prices, relaxed atmosphere, and (overly) quick service added up to a suitably bistroic atmosphere. Scribbling on the chalkboard tables and chatting with the friendly staff, I felt a bit like I had wandered into a friend's living roomâwhich is what a bistro should feel like, only, ideally, a bistro's food should improve on what a friend might serve. With this particular bistro, I'm not sure that's the case.
